Munich Airport suspended flight operations late on Thursday night due to “several drone sightings”, marking the latest incident of unknown drone overflights in the airspace of European Union member states.
Air traffic in and out of the airport began to resume at 5 am CET on Friday, according to a spokesperson for Germany’s federal police.
Flights were grounded from 10:18 pm, according to a statement by the airport on Thursday night, with 17 flights unable to take off and nearly 3,000 passengers affected. 15 arriving flights were diverted to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Vienna.
“When a drone is sighted, the safety of travelers is the top priority,” the statement read, adding that camp beds were set up with blankets, drinks and snacks provided to the affected passengers.
The incident is the latest in a string of drone sightings across Europe in the past week. Airports in Denmark, Norway and Poland similarly suspended flights due to unidentified drone activity.
Airspace violations were also reported in Estonia and Romania.
While it has not been immediately clear who was behind most of the flyovers, European authorities have indicated that Russia could be behind them, with a European Commission spokesperson saying that “Russia is testing the European borders.”
Moscow has denied all claims of involvement in the recent drone sightings that took place in Denmark. Officials in Russia and ally Belarus have nevertheless acknowledged that some drones used as part of Russia’s war on Ukraine entered the territory of EU and NATO member Poland, which caused a scramble by the country and its allies in which fighter jets were sent to shoot them down.
The hardening position of many of Europe’s leaders towards drone incursions was a major part of discussions that took place this week at a European Summit in Copenhagen, with a number of them giving broad support to proposals to ramp up the development of drone and anti-drone technology as part of a so-called drone wall.
